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Nature as Medicine

Science’s Newest Miracle Drug Is Free

A grassroots movement of physicians are prescribing time outdoors as the best possible cure for a growing list of ailments. Can they really convince the health care industry that free medicine is the way of the future?

Adventure

Health

The Cold, Hard Evidence on Better Breathing for Athletes

There’s plenty of hype about ways of boosting your respiratory system. Some—but not all—of it is real, according to a new review.

Travel

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument on the Colorado Plateau

The 36 Best Trips in the U.S.

We’re celebrating the grandeur of America, from beautiful rivers, beaches, and mountains to incredible glamping outposts and wild places. Our travel experts are constantly on the road finding new adventures, and their ideas will jump-start your next unforgettable journey.

Food

Culture

Long Reads

Peter Kaestner illustration with birds flying around him

What It Takes to See 10,000 Bird Species

Peter Kaestner has traveled the world on an adventure-filled quest to become the first birder to hit 10,000. Ornithologist Jessie Williamson hitched a ride on a rollicking South American mission that involved land, sea, and (you guessed it) air.

Gear

Kammok Crosswing awning

Kammok’s New Vehicle Awning Will Transform Overland Shade

The unique design deploys in seconds and doesn’t require poles or guy wires, making it one of my most-used pieces of overland gear

Outside
Apps

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Gaia GPS

Get off the beaten path, and stay found.

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Trailforks

Discover the best trails in the world.

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Outside TV

Unlock 600+ hours of ad-free films and series.

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Outside+

Unlock 15+ outdoor publications all in one app.

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Watch

DYI truck camper video

A Tour of a Renovated, DIY $500 Truck-Camper Rig

In this episode of the 101, Bryan Rogala tours cameraman Corey Leavitt’s new 2002 Dodge Ram 2500 build-out. Here's how Leavitt spent months gutting and renovating it.

Listen

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Tune Into Our Podcasts? Tell Us What You Think.

What kinds of stories do you want and not want from us? Fill out a short survey so we can create the shows you’re after.

Crime

The Murder of Moriah Wilson

How did one of the best young bike racers in the country wind up dead in an Austin apartment? Our writer unravels the tangled story of a crime that shocked the world.

One: Weapons Handling

Colin Strickland believed that every woman should own a gun. It was a feminist conviction of a sort. He would argue that, as a dude—a tall, tan, strapping dude—he enjoyed a freedom that many women don’t. He could go most places and do most things without feeling threatened. He rode his bike on desolate gravel roads, then parked his truck wherever he liked and slept inside a Spartan trailer he hauled behind him. As a professional bike racer, he lived a remarkably carefree life, close to the best he could have imagined for himself. But he was aware of his male privilege, too.

Strickland’s girlfriend, Kaitlin Armstrong, called him one night in the summer of 2020, sobbing and panicked. A belligerent man—maybe intoxicated, maybe suffering some kind of mental breakdown, maybe both—kept banging on the door of her Austin, Texas, apartment. The guy eventually went away, but the incident terrified her. Another time, she was accosted by an angry man in a grocery store parking lot. Now and then, creeps followed her while she rode on bike paths and made her feel unsafe. Strickland could only imagine how these incidents felt to Armstrong, a lithe yoga instructor with auburn hair that fell across her shoulders. He knew that men commit nearly 80 percent of violent crime in the U.S., and he wondered: Why should a woman spend her life living in fear? Maybe a gun would make Kaitlin feel empowered, more independent, free to live the way she chose.

It’s easy to buy a weapon in Texas. So one day around the beginning of 2022, Strickland and Armstrong rode their bikes to McBride’s, a family-owned gun shop near the University of Texas. Armstrong picked out a 9mm SIG Sauer P365 pistol and held it up to get a feel for its weight. Strickland picked out a handgun, too. As a kid, he’d lived in the rural Hill Country west of Austin, an area with a lot of firearms. But his family didn’t own guns, and he’d fired a shotgun maybe once in his life. The motivation to buy one now came from his fascination with machines; he was drawn to the engineering and construction.

In their relationship, Armstrong, who’d once worked in finance, managed the money, while Strickland often paid for things. After providing the background information required by federal law for licensed gun dealers, he asked the salesperson if they needed to have Armstrong’s information, too. “No,” he was told. “In the state of Texas, you can gift someone a gun.”

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March/April 2023

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